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Never Leave Your Bed Again With This Awesome Japanese Invention
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Never Leave Your Bed Again With This Awesome Japanese Invention

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This is how the Japanese stay warm in the winter, or how you can stay in bed all day! The kotatsu consists of a blanket placed between a low table-frame and table-top, with a heat source positioned underneath the sheet. With your legs placed under the blanket, someone wearing traditional Japanese clothing would have warm air come through the bottom of their robes and exit around the neck, heating the whole body while in this comfortable bed.

The origins of the Japanese heated table can be traced to the 14th-century Japanese irori or cooking hearth. By the 17th century, irori dug into the ground, called hori-gotatsu, resembled a fixed kotatsu. Modern heated bed tables, which are moveable, are referred to as oki-gotatsu. Since most Japanese homes have little insulation and no central heating, kotatsu serves as efficient space heaters during the colder months. And though similar heating devices were, and sometimes are still used in many countries, the kotatsu is thought to be the first contraption of its kind. Also, this ingenious Japanese furniture piece might be a predecessor to floor heating as we know it.

Scroll down to check the kotatsu table and the system below; we sure would want to have these in our homes!

(h/t: aplus, demilked)

Image credits: Belle Maison

Image credits: Belle Maison

Image credits: Matthew McVickar / Sjschen

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Image credits: Belle Maison

Image credits: Belle Maison

Image credits: Belle Maison

Image credits: Belle Maison

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Image credits: Hamamatsu Kamera Tsuushin

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s_poursaleh avatar
Sajjad
Community Member
8 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

We used to sleep under this when we were child in iran. Members of family sit around it and grandmother told the story until everyone sleep.

s_poursaleh avatar
engelnaz avatar
FarnazMontgomery
Community Member
8 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This is no Japanese invention. It's a traditional Iraninan thing. It is called Korsi.

barb.braun1 avatar
BarbBraun
Community Member
8 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I like the idea but wonder how safe it is with the heat source under a blanket.

monkey_1 avatar
StephaniePajonas
Community Member
8 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The heat source is under the table and it's safe. The Japanese have been using them a very long time.

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s_poursaleh avatar
Sajjad
Community Member
8 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

We used to sleep under this when we were child in iran. Members of family sit around it and grandmother told the story until everyone sleep.

s_poursaleh avatar
engelnaz avatar
FarnazMontgomery
Community Member
8 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This is no Japanese invention. It's a traditional Iraninan thing. It is called Korsi.

barb.braun1 avatar
BarbBraun
Community Member
8 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I like the idea but wonder how safe it is with the heat source under a blanket.

monkey_1 avatar
StephaniePajonas
Community Member
8 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The heat source is under the table and it's safe. The Japanese have been using them a very long time.

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